So far, the investigation has revealed about 6 million Euros in his accounts. The money, according to press reports, appears to have been generated from a series of bribes related to various military armament contracts. If the charges hold ground then Karatzaferis could possibly face three felonies (money laundering, submitting a false asset declaration and illegally owning an off-shore company) - given that the case goes to trial.
So far, the investigation has shown that 5.5 million Euros were found in two offshore accounts belonging to Karatzaferis, but it has also brought to the surface the names of five other people who are apparently also involved in the bribes. In fact, some reports claim that a close family member of Karatzaferis could also be facing similar charges.
Prosecutor Panagiotis Brakoumatsos is waiting for a confirmation from the Greek Parliament some time next week regarding the aforementioned charges.
Meanwhile, a report in To Vima exposed the individuals involved in the bribes (from the above total) with noted names such as Th. Moschos, I. Rammos and P. Strantzalis which it said are military officers, and Stavros Komnopoulos and Alexandros Tsatsos who it added are owners of the French Kestrel company.
It should be noted that the French company reportedly acted as a middleman in the purchase of four AS 332 CI Super Puma helicopters from the Eurocopter firm in 2000, which cost a whopping 61,741,925 million euros, with a juicy 5.5 million euro commission.
If one goes back a few years, then everything becomes perfectly clear. It is a well known fact that when LAOS was in Parliament, Karatzaferis, and the members of his party (who today defected over to the ND party), often expressed a special interest in the supplies of the armed forces. The interest was so pressing that on April 28th, 2011 the Minister of National Defense who at the time was Evangelos Venizelos, was forced to publicly admit that Karatzaferis often visited him to ask when Greece would receive two submarines. Later on in Parliament he would skillfully encourage his MPs to ask questions on the matter. Also, the leader of LAOS more or less defended Akis Tsohatzopoulos (in Parliament) and even his off shore companies. (Tsochatzopoulos is serving time for accepting kickbacks and bribes in the sale of defence systems as well).
Some readers of HellasFrappe have criticized our blog for being very critical with Karatzaferis. Indeed we have been on more than one occasion, but we did not do this out of menace or prejudice. We also did not do this because he was a rival to former PM Costas Karamanlis, whom we still support. The reason we were highly critical over Karatzaferis in the past is because we constantly questioned the origin of his vast wealth. We were never convinced -and through our countless articles- often hinted that he was "selling" something else other than a few political lines to his voters. From what we see, we were spot on. He was indeed buying and selling everything from people to defence systems.
In the mid 1980s Karatzaferis was supposedly combating the state television monopoly and had joined a so-called anti-propaganda machine against PASOK. He wandered through the streets with a camera and would make his own news bulletins, the tapes of which he would later “sell” (make your own conclusions on what exactly it was he was selling and to whom -and at what price-).
His efforts may have been quite amateur at the time, and downright silly, but he always gave the impression to (a large percentage of his audience that is) that he was fighting for free information and freedom of speech. His theatrical and charismatic skills paid off and in no time he established his own television channel which in all honesty was hardly noticed by the general public.
Most people would agree that he has audacity, and always comes across as being very blunt. This is probably why he created a school of nationalists who were infused with neoliberal and neodemocratic ideologies through his channel.
This all developed even further when Christodoulos was elected as the Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece. At the time, Karatzaferis -being the opportunist that he was/is- decided to put on his best Christian suit. The moralistic, religious and nationalistic turn of Greek society, with its congregations, banners and protests over ID cards that occurred at the height of Christodoulos' reign as Archbishop, was manipulated by Karatzaferis and he suddenly came across as being the defender against the New World Order -especially during the period 1996-2004 or during Costas Simitis’ rule, and the protector of the Orthodox faith (since at least 95 percent of the Greek population is Orthodox).
In the same period, Karatzaferis also purposely collided with his own party leader Costas Karamanlis, and after literally insulting him with obnoxious innuendos was expelled from the party and never allowed to return.
So Karatzaferis did what he does best, he decided to bank on the opportunity and following the elections in 2000 he established the LAOS party. He went door to door and spoke to many people preaching about what is just and what is honorable and at the time quite a few people bought in on his play, especially in Northern Greece. So much so that during the municipal elections in 2002, his forces strengthened further. At some point the Golden Dawn party began to become active as well and it is a well known fact that some members from GD found their way on his ballots.
After receiving 14% of the vote, Karatzaferis the puritan and defender of all that is good and just -and who today is ready to be charged with money-laundering- transformed again and this time became a preacher of morals, nationalism, sensationalism and the defender of the status quo. Who can forget the summer of 2002 when he wandered from television station to television station indicating possible terrorist hideouts? Just 12 years later the man who sold the ideologies of "country, religion, family" (patris, thriskeia, oikogeneia), is set to be charged for taking millions of Euros (or Greek payers tax money) in kickbacks and bribes!
It is almost too comical. In the day he would promote the cross that decorated his emblem, swear allegiance to the country, the church and the nation and at night he would discuss what types of defence systems were better for Greece, given that he received a kickback or two.
Frappers, the case of Karatzaferis is just another example of the fading credibility of Greece's political system. This grand (lying) moralist was fooling society in the worst possible way, and we cannot say that we are upset that his true face has finally been revealed.
Opportunists such as Karatzaferis are too obvious to us and we knew from day one that he was dipping into the honey jar while pretending to preach the truth. Again, this was not because we were more inclined to Costas Karamanlis -who was and forever will be a big rival of Karatzaferis- but because we new in our gut that it was all fake.
Over the last few days many startling facts about his wealth have surfaced and one would think that he would have the decency to explain himself, or to at least offer to give back this money to the state. Unfortunately he hasn't and the few words that he has muttered are only to defend his own likelihood. Again, we are not convinced, on the contrary we believe that all he is doing is buying some time in order to prepare for the storm ahead. All this from the man who defended George Papandreou with a menace in 2008 against Karamanlis, who a few years later signed the First Memorandum and endorsed it on all levels, and the man who always placed the Mitsotakis family -and especially Dora Bakoyianni- above Costas Karamanlis.
Let us hope that the investigation continues and may it reveal the responsibilities of those who are implicated. This bribery scourge, which obviously flourished for many years in this sector, has to finally come to an end.
HellasFrappe Team
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